


Deuxième Chance (Pour l'Amour)

by pickwicklingpapers



Series: Cophine AUs [3]
Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, Magic AU, Sequel, Sorry Not Sorry, cophine - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 10:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4662630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pickwicklingpapers/pseuds/pickwicklingpapers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If one universe has magic, it can find its way through to the other. Especially for love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deuxième Chance (Pour l'Amour)

**Author's Note:**

> and here's the sequel - the reuinification of delphine and cosima because magic makes anything possible. (if you haven't read part ii: la magie ne peut pas résoudre les polypes then read that first)

The apartment is quiet in the darkness, dust motes swirling gently in the still air. It’s quiet, the only noise the occasional car driving along the street outside, and the odd nocturnal animal foraging for leftover takeout. Next door a baby whimpers in its sleep, rousing its tired parents for the fourth time that night. The clock on the mantelpiece edges towards twelve, the skull on the desk grinning humourlessly at the periodic table above the bed.

Light crackles and spins in the air, sucking in the darkness as it spits out tendrils. The air seems to open, creating a ring of blue light through which the exact same room can be seen. In this new place, however, a cauldron sits on the table alongside a wand. The other main difference takes the form of the blonde woman climbing through the ring.

“Hello?” she calls, one hand holding the hair out of her face whilst the other stabilises her. “Cosima?” Her accent is French, soft and lilting and so full of such gentle hope that it would cut through the heart of anyone watching.

\-------------------

“Just tell me one thing, Scott. Will it work?”

Scott nodded. “I don’t see why not. The stream of energy from her universe should allow her to live safely here.” He turned to Delphine. “You just have to get her to bring an item back. Something precious, something she’s had for years. The longer she’s had it, the greater the emotional value, the better.”

Delphine nodded. “That’s it?”

“That’s it. Once she’s back here, we can put it in the potion, cast the enchantment, and she’ll be fine. It’ll act as a tether, keeping her attached to her universe whilst living in ours.” He smiled. “And you two can finally make that crazy science that you always talked about.”

“Thank you, Scott” Delphine said, head down as her eyes brimmed over. She sniffed. “For everything.”

“Hey,” he said, tipping her head up and pulling her into a hug. “Just go get our girl, okay? Bring her home.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath, steeling herself. Stepping forward to stand in the symbols drawn on the floor, she locked eyes with her friend. “On va voir.” She said, voice breaking on the last word. Raising her wand, she drew a rectangle, blue light crackling around her. As Cosima’s room came into view, she turned to Scott one last time.

“Thank you.”

\---------------------

Cosima’s apartment was dark and made darker by the light spilling through from the other side. For a moment, Delphine’s breath hitched in her throat. The dust was thick _,_ which was to be expected. Cosima’s hatred for housework was unrivalled. Without Delphine to keep the place relatively tidy, it was no wonder that the dust had built up. Cosima was as wild as her science, too curious to be constrained by mundane tasks like dusting. To hear her complain about a hoover was only made funnier by the fact that Delphine had had no idea what one was.

“Cosima?” She called. “It’s me. I came back for you.”

Peering round the corner, she was greeted with an empty bed. No Cosima in any other room. Turning towards the front door, she stopped at the coatrack. Cosima’s coat and shoes were missing – so she just had to wait for her to return. No problem.

The sound of a key turning in the door echoed in the silence and Delphine turned, striding forwards. This was it, this was their meeting and Delphine was never letting go of Cosima again. They would make crazy science together and move to France and raise a household of happy, smiling children. A woman entered, dark hair swinging forwards, and

Delphine stopped still. The girl looked just like her, but it wasn’t Cosima. Had she gone to the wrong universe? After all this time did she get it wrong? But no – the picture on the table was one of the two of them that she'd taken on Cos' phone two weeks in. This was Cosima’s house.

The stranger took one look at the blue ring though which light glows and another house is visible and sighed. “You must be Delphine.” She put her keys down on the sideboard and shrugged out of her jacket. “To be honest, I just kind of thought she was making you up.”

The girl is English. “Cosima told you about me?” Her voice is so very nearly the way Delphine remembers Cosima’s, but not quite.

“Yeah.” The girl stretched out her hand. “I’m Sarah. Her sister.”

“Her sister? But Cosima, she has no family, she said that-“

Sarah shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a recent development. Adoption and foreign countries and legal systems and all.” She gave a small smile, lifting one shoulder in the same way Delphine had seen Cosima do.

“Oh, well um, echantée.”

Sarah placed her hat on top of the keys and lent against the door. “Back at ya.”

“Sorry,” Delphine said, struggling to regain some sort of control over the conversation, “but do you know where Cosima is?” She gestured to the portal. “Only I have half an hour before it closes, and I need to speak to her, I need to tell her – well, she knows but, and I was wondering if-“

“Delphine, it’s been over a year.” Sarah said, cutting off Delphine’s rambling with a sympathetic expression.

“I know, I know,” Delphine agreed. She had taken too long. She should have been quicker. She should have tried harder. “And I understand if she doesn’t want to see me, or if she’s moved on, but-”

“I’m sorry, Delphine.” Sarah said firmly. “You’re too late. She’s gone.”

“Where’s her new house?” Delphine said, refusing to even think about the answer nudging the back of her brain. “I’ll travel, I’ll go anywhere.”

Sarah sighed. “The polyps on her lungs? Magic couldn’t cure them and nor could science.” She took a deep breath and looked Delphine in the eyes. “She’s been dead for three weeks.”

Delphine stifled a sob, backing away until her back hit the table and she slid down, clutching the edge of the dresser. She’d stopped this. She’d sent Cosima away, persuaded her to leave, so that this never happened. So that she would live. If she was in her own universe, then there was no cause, and without cause there was no effect, right? Right?

Sarah opened a drawer and took out a letter, crisp and white. “She always said you’d come back. I thought it was just the meds talking. Shit,” she ran a hand through her hair, blinking tiredly, “I didn’t even think you were real but…” She shrugged, holding out the envelope. “She wrote you this.”

 

* * *

 

_Hey Delphine,_

_If you’re reading this then, well, you’ve come back and I’ve let you down. I’m sorry about that. I hung on for as long as I could. But I guess the science of the body overrules the magic of the mind, or at least in my universe it does._  
_I asked Sarah to come stay – I gave her the house, transferred everything over, so I guess it’s her that gave you this. Trust her. She’s a good person, even if she does get confused sometimes._  
_Talking of Sarah – surprise! It seems like I did have some family left after all. Shocked as hell when she first turned up; a girl, looking identical to me, claiming that she’d tracked me down. But with that many similarities, science said it had to be siblings or clones, and clones is just crazy, right?_  
_Although I suppose that technically identical twins are clones, so…_  
_You probably hate reading this as much as I hate writing it, so I’ll finish with what I meant to say all along:_

_This isn’t your fault._

_The cancer – the doctors say it’s genetic. You can blame my parents (my mother to be exact) for this situation. It wasn’t you. It wasn’t the other universe. There’s no problems there. It was just my body letting me down the moment I found something worth living for. Sorry. I could’ve stayed. We could have found magic to cure me. Like you wanted. You had faith and I gave up hope in me, in us, because my science couldn't solve it. There was no reason for me to leave you. I will always regret that choice. I put myself before us and I let you convince me to leave. I was wrong. I’m sorry._

_I’m sorry._

_I love you._

**Author's Note:**

> so bake off, right? tense as fuck.
> 
> (woops)


End file.
